


Live by the Sword

by Ellimac



Series: His Dark Minerals [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Episode: s01e16 Steven the Sword Fighter, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 01:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5950885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellimac/pseuds/Ellimac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steven tries to make up for Pearl's absence by befriending her sword-fighting hologram.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Live by the Sword

Steven stares at the inert gem. Thinking to give Pearl every comfort while she regenerates, he put the gem in a basket with soft blankets, and checks on it every few minutes to make sure it’s warm enough. Sola even takes the form of a hen to sit on it as if it were an egg, but she jumps up to check on it far too frequently to actually do much good.

It’s been two weeks. At first, Sola told him to be patient, but now she is just as anxious as he is. He keeps replaying it all in his head: the fight. The daemonless holo-Pearl. Pearl and Marguerite disappearing in a puff of smoke. Pearl’s gem clattering to the ground.

“What’s _taking_ so long?” he groans, as Sola settles yet again onto the makeshift nest holding Pearl’s gem.

The warp pad activates, and Garnet and Amethyst appear.

“Whatup?” Amethyst says.

“Hey,” Steven says dispiritedly.

Porphyra, tiger-shaped, pads over to peer at Pearl’s gem, while Amethyst follows behind, sitting on a cloud. “Is she still not done?” Amethyst says. “Man. She’s really taking her time with this one.”

Steven rests his chin on the counter. Porphyra stands on their hind legs to give Steven a reassuring, if sloppy, lick to the forehead.

“I gotta tell you though,” Amethyst says, turning her cloud around to survey the room,” I love what you’ve done with the place.”

The room is a mess. There are clothes and toys everywhere. It’s not that Steven doesn’t want to clean it, it’s just…

“Pearl usually helps us tidy up,” Sola explains. Steven sinks lower in his seat.

“I say leave it,” Amethyst says, leaning back on her cloud to examine the room.

Steven follows her gaze, and his eyes land on a sheet-covered figure standing in the corner of the room. He brightens up. “Hey! If real Pearl can’t be here, there’s always the next best thing!”

“Oh, Steven, no,” Sola says. She follows Steven over to the figure, arriving just as he pulls the sheet off of it.

Holo-Pearl’s eyes flash as it reactivates. “Do you wish to engage in combat?”

“Put it away,” Sola says. “It creeps me out.”

“Yeah, Steven,” Amethyst says, floating over. “Cover that thing back up.”

“But it’s almost like Pearl!” Steven says, his enthusiasm undampened. “Look at it!”

“I am looking at it,” Sola says, just as stubborn in her unenthusiasm. “It doesn’t have a daemon. It’s creepy. It’s like if it didn’t have a head.”

“Yeah, that thing’s way too weird to be Pearl,” Amethyst agrees.

Steven looks at the hologram. It is true that it doesn’t really look like a person without a daemon; it was all right in the arena, but when he tries to imagine it taking on Pearl’s role, all he can conjure is the image of it standing over him menacingly while he does his everyday tasks.

“Well,” he says, “maybe I can get it to act like her.”

Amethyst rolls her eyes, but all she says is, “Do what you gotta do, dude,” before she floats away to her room. Porphyra gives Holo-Pearl a glare before they follow Amethyst into her room.

Steven looks up at Holo-Pearl and takes its hand. Sola clucks in irritation and hops over to the other side of Steven, as far away from Holo-Pearl as she can get.

Steven leads it over to the area of most clutter and gestures. “Here we have a mess,” he says. “Organizing messes is one of Pearl’s favorite hobbies. Here.” He picks up a handful of toys and starts setting them on the windowsill. “Pearl likes to organize them by type. Animal… humanoid… miscellaneous…” He looks expectantly up at Holo-Pearl. “Now you try.”

Holo-Pearl does nothing. Instinctively, Steven looks for Marguerite to talk to it for him, but of course, she’s not there. A shiver goes down his spine.

“I _told_ you,” Sola says. She is still chicken-shaped, out of protest. “It’s creepy. I wish you’d put it away.”

Steven frowns. “No, I’m sure we can make this work. Here.” He picks up an action figure and holds it out.

Holo-Pearl’s eyes go red. “You’ve drawn your sword in vain!”

“What?” Steven notices too late that the action figure has a sword attached to it. He dives for cover, flinging the toy in the air, where it is pierced by Holo-Pearl’s sword.

“Challenger defeated,” Holo-Pearl says, and Steven thinks he hears a hint of smugness in its tone.

Sola clucks again. “I told you…”

“No,” Steven says stubbornly. “We just need to try something else.”

\--

Garnet and Amethyst are down on the beach. As Steven arrives with Holo-Pearl, Amethyst swallows a chunk of the cloud she was floating on. A moment later, she puffs up and starts to float, stopping only when Garnet catches her ankle. Porphyra laughs and becomes a hummingbird, zipping around Amethyst’s suddenly-round form.

Steven giggles and turns to Holo-Pearl. He replaced its sword with an umbrella in the hopes of making it less menacing, but it hasn’t really helped. It gives him a small shock to look at it every time, now, to not see the shape of a bird on its shoulder. He ignores the feeling, determined to make this work.

“Pearl always likes to tease Amethyst when she does funny stuff like this,” he says.

“I won’t go easy on you this time!” Holo-Pearl responds.

“That’s the spirit,” Steven says, and runs down to the beach to join Amethyst and Garnet.

“Oh, hey, Steven,” Porphyra says as he approaches.

Holo-Pearl, reacting to this, points its umbrella directly at Porphyra. “Draw your weapon, challenger!”

Porphyra squeaks and hides behind Amethyst. Amethyst sighs. “Ugh, Steven, why are you still hanging out with that thing? It’s gross.”

7“That’s what I keep saying,” Sola says. “But he doesn’t listen.”

Steven looks down. “I just really miss spending time with Pearl.”

“Pearl will come back to us in time, Steven,” Garnet says. “Have patience.”

Steven looks at Holo-Pearl, still standing ready to attack the next person who draws a sword. He frowns.

“And stop hanging out with that thing,” Garnet adds, crossing her arms and letting go of Amethyst’s foot. “It’s creepy.”

“Hey, wait for me!” Porphyra cries as Amethyst floats away. They zip up to join her, and both quickly turn into small specks in the distant sky. Elektra crawls out of Garnet’s hair to watch with her, and Steven turns to leave, discouraged.

Garnet is right, of course; no matter how hard he tries, this thing is not, and never will be, Pearl. Even if he gets it to act exactly like her, it can’t exactly make its own daemon, after all.

“Steven, I really think we should just wait for Pearl to come back,” Sola says. “I miss her too, but no matter how much you try to get that thing to act like her…”

“I know,” Steven says. He sits cross-legged on the beach, and Sola hops into his lap. “I just thought, if I could get it to act a little bit like Pearl…” He looks at Holo-Pearl, now menacing empty air, as Amethyst has floated off and Garnet has gone to see about getting her back. “I keep thinking I’ll see Marguerite. Holo-Marguerite.”

Sola clucks, reassuring this time. “We’ll see them both again soon.”

Steven gets up, looking wistfully at Holo-Pearl. “Maybe if we try taking it to one of Pearl’s favorite places? Her favorite tree, maybe?”

“No,” Sola says firmly. “It won’t recognize it, or worse, it _will_ , and it will try to challenge it to a duel, and it’ll win, because its opponent will be a tree.  It’d cut off a few branches at the very least. Pearl would be upset.”

Steven sighs. “You’re right. I guess we’ll just go home and put it away.”

Sola doesn’t say anything, but her feathers fluff up in satisfaction, and her unspoken “I told you so” is nearly loud enough to be heard anyway.

\--

Steven sits in front of the TV, Pearl’s gem nestled snugly on a soft pillow beside him. Sola has taken the form of a cat and settled on the other side of Pearl. It would be a perfect scene, if not for two things: Pearl’s continued absence, and Holo-Pearl’s continued presence.

He made it stand in a corner as soon as they arrived back home, and threw a sheet over it, but its eyes are still glowing and he doesn’t know how to make them stop. He thought putting it back under the sheet would turn it off, but he swears the eyes are following him around the room. It watched him as he made popcorn, and it nearly made him drop it when he walked past and it shouted, “Do you wish to test your skills against me in a duel?”

“No! No sword-fighting!” he shouted back at it, while Sola ran and hid behind his ankles. But it seems it would have been better to simply ignore it, because as he put the Lonely Blade movie in, he looked down to see it standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at him.

“Draw your sword and fulfill your destiny!” it said.

Steven shuddered, but steeled himself. “No! Leave us alone!”

That seemed to work. At least, Holo-Pearl hasn’t moved again, and they are well into the Lonely Blade movie. But Steven finds he isn’t enjoying it at all. The dub is good, but though the sword techniques are nothing at all like what Pearl showed him, he can’t help thinking of that awful moment, remembering Pearl with a sword through her chest, the way she and Marguerite simply vanished in a puff of smoke.

“Challenge accepted!”

Steven jumps aside, startled, as Holo-Pearl stabs its sword through the TV. He didn’t even notice it coming. Neither, apparently, did Sola, as she leaps up and hisses, puffed up to twice her normal size. Steven picks her up and holds her tight as she shivers.

“Challenger defeated,” Holo-Pearl says.

Sola hisses, feeling the change in Steven’s mood, and he lets her down so she can hide behind his legs. “I hate you,” he tells Holo-Pearl. “I hate you! I thought I could make you act like Pearl, but you’re nothing like her! Maybe if you had a holo-daemon—but you couldn’t even do it then! You’re just a mean old hologram whether you have a daemon or not. I bet she’d just tell you to fight me, anyway!”

Holo-Pearl’s eyes blink. “Challenge accepted. Basic attack mode initiated!”

Steven gives a groan of frustration. “Fine!” He picks up a toy from the ground and throws it at Holo-Pearl, but Holo-Pearl is already parrying and thrusting, and the toy simply hits its sword and bounces off.

“Steven, don’t,” Sola says, but Steven hardly hears her; he’s too busy throwing more toys at Holo-Pearl. Finally, one connects, and Holo-Pearl stops moving.

“Basic attack mode defeated,” it says, and for a moment even Sola perks up. But then its eyes turn red, and it continues, “Now initiating advanced mode!” and Steven’s heart sinks.

Sola jumps up, tail fluffed, as the sword goes straight for Steven, missing him by an inch. “Steven!” she cries, but Steven is way ahead of her, diving out of the way of the sword straight down to the first floor. He lands on the couch, but has no time to relax, because Holo-Pearl is right behind him.

“Pillow shield!” Steven cries, grabbing one of the cushions from the couch and holding it in front of him. Holo-Pearl’s sword rips straight through it. Where are Garnet and Amethyst? Where is Pearl? He backs up as Holo-Pearl advances, frantically looking for something, anything to hit it with, but before he can find anything he hears a shriek, and Sola, hawk-shaped, hits the hologram in the back of its head. It turns on her, giving Steven more time to get away. He dives over the counter into the kitchen, and his eyes land on a mop. It’s no sword, but it’s better than nothing.

He jumps up to face Holo-Pearl again, heart beating wildly. Sola is still attacking it, but it seems to have decided that she is a minor annoyance, hardly a real opponent. Steven holds the mop in front of him, but Holo-Pearl slices it to pieces before he can even make a move, and he is left to dodge side to side as she drives her sword into the cabinets behind him.

“I should have just waited for you to come back, Pearl!” he cries, as Holo-Pearl’s sword gets closer and closer. “I should have waited for—”

Holo-Pearl lifts her sword over her head, and Steven sees it at the same time Sola does. An opening. Sola shouts, “The perfect moment! Steven, now!”

 “Boomerang Blade!” Steven cries, and he closes his eyes and throws the mop for all he is worth.

He doesn’t open his eyes until he hears Sola’s shout of triumph. The mop has lodged itself directly in Holo-Pearl’s stomach, and as he watches, it lowers its sword and stands up straight. Its eyes go back to white.

“Challenger wins,” it says, as its form flickers around the mop. “Do you wish to duel again?”

“No!” Steven and Sola shout in unison. Steven grabs the mop and flails wildly as Holo-Pearl’s form shatters into pixels, which he mops out of the air as quickly as he can.

Only then do Garnet and Amethyst appear, Amethyst still inflated by the cloud. Porphyra, tiger-shaped, has her ankle firmly in their teeth.

“Steven, we heard fighting,” Garnet says.

“Are you all right?” Amethyst says. “What’s going on?”

Steven glances at Sola, and they come to an unspoken agreement not to tell them what happened. “Just… mopping,” Steven says.

Sola dives on one last remaining pixel, then flutters to Steven’s shoulder.

“You know,” Steven says, “I might miss Pearl a whole lot. But sometimes you just have to accept things the way they—”

He is interrupted by Pearl’s gem suddenly beginning to glow. Sola leaps from his shoulder in excitement, and nearly collides in midair with Pearl’s gem, which has floated from its perch on the pillow over to the middle of the room. A shape expands from the gem, at first just one, but quickly splitting off into two, one humanoid and one bird-like. In a moment, Pearl has reformed, Marguerite sitting on her shoulder exactly as she always does.

A knot seems to unclench in Steven’s gut. Seeing Holo-Pearl without Marguerite was worse than he thought it was. Now, it seems that everything is right with the world again.

“Never mind,” he says. “Pearl’s back!”

He dashes over to hug her, and she laughs. “Hey. Miss me much?” She looks around the room. “Uh… Steven… what happened to your room?”

Again, Steven and Sola share a glance. “We made a mess,” Steven says.

“Steven,” Sola says. “The thing.”

“Oh, right! I almost forgot!” Steven rushes away to the kitchen while Amethyst drifts over, hovering near the ceiling.

Pearl looks up at her and sighs. “I don’t even want to know what happened to you.”

“She got hit by an airplane,” Porphyra says smugly.

Steven runs back from the kitchen, equipped with a pan and a wooden spoon, and with his shirt tied around his head. Sola is a peacock now, marching along behind him and fanning her tail to its full extent, so much so that Garnet has to step out of the way to avoid being hit by it.

“Pearl’s back, Pearl’s back, Pearl’s back,” Steven chants, walking in a circle around Pearl and banging his pan. Sola accompanies him with a rhythmic hooting.

“Steven, what are you doing?” Pearl says, dodging out of the way of Sola’s tail.

Marguerite fluffs her feathers. “We really can’t leave you guys alone for a second, can we?”

“Nope,” Amethyst says, and burps out a piece of cloud.

Pearl sighs. “Well, in any case. It’s good to be back.”

“Pearl’s back!” Steven says, and Sola lets out a loud hoot. It’s their way of saying they could not agree more.


End file.
